'The Dark Tower' Begins Production, Stephen King Says It Starts "In The Middle Of The Story," Will Have Modern Day Setting

First, let’s get it out of the way: Matthew McConaughey andIdris Elbaare officially confirmed for “The Dark Tower.” Even more, cameras are now rolling on the project which had some big ambitions, including multiple films, and a TV series, but it seems the latter idea isn’t quite locked down yet. And even more, the first film, won’t be starting with the first book in Stephen King‘s series.

“[The movie] starts in media res, in the middle of the story instead of at the beginning, which may upset some of the fans a little bit, but they’ll get behind it, because it is the story,” the author told EW.

“A lot of it takes place in our day, in the modern world,” director Nikolaj Arcel teased, though everyone involved at the moment is declining to say what exactly the source material for the movie will be.

The magazine has done some speculation, and guess that the saga of Roland Deschain and The Man In Black will start with the third book, “The Waste Lands,” because it’s where much of the story begins to take shape, and even though it’s set in 1977, it could easily be updated. But again, that’s just supposition.

As for the early parts of the story, that stuff is being saved in the hopes that the TV series plan does come to fruition. “They’re still holding on to this idea that they can do a TV series, and they’ve got it pegged for that,” King said, and it would seem everyone involved is waiting to see if the movie clicks with audiences before going all in with a massive franchise.

“Other people have tried fantasy spectacle. Sometimes it works, sometimes it works really well when it’s based on a series of books, like ‘The Hunger Games‘ or ‘Harry Potter,’ and sometimes it doesn’t,” King added. “What I have to go back to is this: We have Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey, two great actors. You’ve got a great production team and Akiva Goldsman as the primary script writer. The team is in place, so we’ll hope for the best.”